Vietnam Internet users fear Facebook blackout

Vietnam's growing legions of Facebook users fear that the country's communist government might be blocking the popular social networking Web site, which has become difficult to access over the past few weeks.
Facebook has more than 1 million users in Vietnam, and the number has been growing quickly since the company recently added a Vietnamese language version of the site.
Over the last week, access to Facebook has been intermittent in the country, whose government tightly controls the flow of information. The severity of the problem appears to depend on which Internet service provider a customer uses.
Access to other popular Web sites appears to be uninterrupted in Vietnam, a nation of 86 million with 22 million Internet users.
San Francisco Chronicle

OKI Data Americas Introduces Desktop Capture Solution to Manage Electronic Workflow Direct From...

Desktop Capture Solution, which helps businesses seamlessly convert paper to electronic documents, with the ability to scan directly into Microsoft(R) Office SharePoint(R) and other document management systems. Compatible with OKI Printing Solutions' full line of color and monochrome multifunction products (MFPs), Desktop Capture Solution eliminates the need for additional imports and uploads that are necessary with most competitive solutions. The solution immediately increases workflow efficiency and employee productivity and reduces the costs of current business processes.
Forbes

EDUCATION: Foreign Students Flock Back to U.S

The 2008/2009 academic year marked the largest increase - eight percent – in the number of international students attending U.S. colleges and universities since the 1980/1981 academic year, according to a report released Monday by the Institute of International Education (IIE).
While the ranks of international students in the U.S. are increasing, so to are the numbers of U.S. students choosing to study abroad.
U.S. students choosing to study abroad increased by 8.5 percent to 262,416 in the 2007/08 academic year with a noticeable increase in students choosing to go to "less traditional" locales, particularly in the developing world.
Destinations experiencing the biggest increase in U.S. students studying abroad include China, Ireland, Austria and India, with increases of about 20 percent each, and Costa Rica, Japan, Argentina and South Africa, up nearly15 percent each.
"Open Doors 2009: International Students in the United States" also finds that the number of new international students - those enrolling for the first time at a U.S. college or university - increased by 16 percent, which followed consecutive increases of 10 percent in the past two years.
IPS News

HPC Advisory Council Announces World's Fastest 120Gb/s Networking Demonstration During SC09

The HPC Advisory Council, a leading organization for high-performance computing research, outreach and education, today announced the largest demonstration of the industry's fastest network during the SC09 conference (Nov.16-20) in Portland, Oregon --120Gb/s InfiniBand over SC09's massive conference network - SCinet. The 120Gb/s demonstration will connect 23 exhibitors on the SC09 showroom floor for demonstrating leading solutions and technologies for high-performance computing such as MPI application offloads and high-speed visualization that will enable real-time 3D navigation of full-scale automotive CAD models. Coupled with a high-resolution portable immersive system, the demonstration will allow visitors to literally walk in unedited automotive CATIA (Computer Aided Three-dimensional Interactive Application) models composed of millions of polygons.
Individual.Com

Fashion school receives three out of five faculty awards at conference

Kent State fashion professors received three of the five faculty awards given at the International Textiles and Apparel Association conference Oct. 30 in Seattle.
Faculty of The School of Fashion Design and Merchandising attend the conference every year. More than 20 countries present designs and research at the juried event.
Professor Vincent Quevedo said Kent State has the most "Lectra" award winners in its faculty. He said the award used to be named "Best in Show."
"There was a lot of buzz after the conference because of Kent State," Quevedo said. "Everyone knows that the top faculty are teaching here. We are trying to create a new graduate program. It will attract the best of the best graduate students."
KentNewsNet.com
Kent State University, Kent, OH

Boston College: Fallen Alumni Honored

Boston College dedicated a memorial yesterday to the 209 BC students who have died in the course of military service. Their names, from William F. Colwell, BC '19, to David S. Connolly, BC '94, are etched into a polished stone memorial that curves against the slope on the Burns Library lawn.
"We are gathered here today to honor those who bore the ultimate burden," said Andrew Jenzer, ROTC cadet and A&S '10.
University President Rev. William P. Leahy, S.J., said that this monument will bring a new sense of solemnity to its area of campus. "May we make our prayer the prayer for each of the individuals whose names are inscribed on the memorial here today," he said. "May we rededicate ourselves to the values and beliefs that inspired these alumni."
The Heights
Boston College, Boston, MA

Half of States Now Offer Online-Learning Programs

More than half of U.S. states now operate online-learning initiatives for K-12 students, an increase over the 15 states that did so just two years ago, according to a new survey.
Most of the 26 states that have online programs have seen significant growth in enrollments in recent years, with a dozen of them reporting jumps of 25 percent or more since 2007, according to the report, “Online Learning Policy and Practice Survey: A Survey of the States.”
But funding and other issues are still roadblocks to the creation or expansion of such programs in some states, the survey concludes.
Education Week